


Without us

by FictionalFriction



Category: Half-Life
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Gina didn't die in Xen it's all lies, Mid-Canon, Pre-HL2, Short One Shot, Xen is a tropical island
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28922859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionalFriction/pseuds/FictionalFriction
Summary: Not every Black Mesa scientist joins the Resistance. Some of them retire and live happily ever after.
Relationships: Gina Cross/Colette Green
Kudos: 8





	Without us

**Author's Note:**

> It's a small text and it contains both Gina/Colette fluff AND some questionable takes on the Resistance members. Consider skipping it if you won't tolerate some mean headcanons about Gordon, Kleiner and Magnusson. They are functioning only as the character's opinion btw, which I as the author do not share.

The fire burned weakly, but evenly. Colette twisted her crowbar under the coals, and a mushroom in blackened foil rolled out. Gina lifted it up with two fingers.

“Phew, it's hot! Seems ready.” 

“Well, let's open it!”

There were many things growing in Xen, but not much of them were like flora. Plants caught between the worlds did not take root – there wasn’t enough light for it here. It seemed that complex organic was produced by blue algae in lakes, but Colette wasn’t sure about it. The biologists' notes turned out to be a better kind of kindling than a source of information. 

There were definitely no normal vegetables in Xen. The giant lianas had hearts, and the glowing shoots hid as soon as you peeked at them. None of this fitted into the usual notions of fruits and veggies. Instead of tea Gina and Collette now had to drink diluted slurry from luminescent bulbs, and instead of potatoes they had to fry mushrooms that had legs, tasted like zucchini and went well with headcrabs. 

Gina removed the foil with a knife and divided the mushroom in two. Colette put down her crowbar and bit into her half of the dinner with the enthusiasm of a woman who had been collecting alien deadwood all day. 

Vortigaunts sometimes visited the cave. By mutual agreement, they no longer tried to kill each other and even had established barter. The women repaired equipment and weapons, and the Vorts brought in spices and explained how to cook Xen's diverse fauna. Later they began to exchange folklore. Collette found the Vorts’ songs to be boring, but Gina liked them. Falling asleep, she purred hypnotic verses, and in her performance they sounded magical. 

The Combine was tossing and turning somewhere on the other end of the abyss. They got the Earth and now only occasionally combed Xen for deserters. A small island on the edge of the world did not attract their attention. The Resistance portals did not reach here either. 

Colette knew it was for the best. She was not going to get involved in an interspecific war. She had everything – the vault of the cave over her head, the stones of the fire pit, a warm sleeping bag, the woman she loved... She would protect her. After all, the Combine never tried to hurt Gina. On the contrary, it was the Black Mesa dorks who have tried and succeeded. They used to underestimate her, to appropriate her achievements, and to reduce her to a pretty face. And now they ran the Human Resistance – but Colette didn't want anything to do with them. 

Was it worth dealing with Kleiner, who’ve sent the Vorts for the HEV wreckage and persuaded Gina to draw the blueprints so that later he could declare only himself the designer? Was it worth dealing with Freeman, the messiah of the Resistance, who was horrible to Gina during their brief relationship? Was it worth dealing with Magnusson, who... Hell, Colette didn't even want to think about it.

She wanted to hug Gina; and so she did. The fire was slowly burning out. Somewhere outside a dimensional rip flared green as rebels tested their portal technology again. They seemed to have obtained some weapons against the Combine. 

“Do you think they can win?”

“Even if they can, it will be without us.”


End file.
